Actors or cartoons... that is the question

[Dr. Killpatient]

If I could get some opinions, do you guys think of the Looney Tunes cast as being "actors" first and cartoon characters second, or vice versa (cartoon characters first and actors second)?

[doctoon]

A little of both--I think of them individually as characters but collectively as a repertory company, since there were so many different pairings and teamings of them.

[Dr. Killpatient]

Thanks.

I kind of meant another way... like in Back in Action, they are portrayed as actors first and cartoon characters second.

I think it was opposite in the Roger Rabbit and Space Jam movies.

[J. B. Warner]

I've always seen them as being more like actors. It's a nice explanation for how certain characters embody different personalities under different directors (Sylvester being the most obvious example - Freleng, Jones, McKimson, and Davis all used him differently).

[Dr. Killpatient]

Never thought about it from that point of view.

My own personal opinion is that they are cartoon characters first, and "actors" second.
It makes it more believeable to me, I suppose. As opposed to the ideal that they are merely actors being cartoons - it makes it more predictable, imho.

I was watching Space Jam the other day, and I noticed that they treated them as cartoons first, and actors second (being in an alternate Toon dimension while still making barbs at WB).

Whereas Back in Action portrayed them as being actors first and foremost (though with a somewhat lack of cartoonishness, sometimes a bit forced to me).

Just my own crazy thoughts at work. :D

[Duck Dodgers]

I've always think of them as actors. Everything can happen in one cartoon without having consequences on the following one. Theatrical cartoons are not TV series, They do not have continuity.
Sylvester can die at the end of "Mouse Mazurka" and so can Tom in "Mouse Trouble" or "The Two Mouseketeers".
Sylvester can be presented as a wifeless father in company of Sylvester Jr. or as a married man..er, cat,...in "A Mouse Divided".

Cartoon characters have always been portrayed as actors. That's my opinion.